h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

How fleeting time is
And not only fleeting but fickle, too
Even when you’ve spent probably half of yours
It still seems as if there are aeons of it
Stretching out in front of you

It does go on forever, that road
Second by second as meters, hour by hour as miles
Dusty, sun-washed, rain wet, flat and easy, hilly and hard
As you travel along it, whether crusing or struggling

But – because there is a but
Even if the road stretches to the horizon, unbroken
There is, sadly, no guarantee that you get to go that far

Stray off it’s course too much
And you may strand in the ditch
Focus all too much on the one goal at the end of it
And you may well run short of fuel way before you get there
Whether fuel for you is success, love, friendship or just simple quiet

And maybe you have achieved the balance
You are doing just fine, not too fast and not too slow
Only for somebody in front of you, by sheer accident, to drop a nail or a shard
And suddenly, pfffft, puncture and you’re not going anywhere

And the thing is, on this road
You cannot stop
If you do – whether you wanted it or not
There is no starting again

You’ll just stay where you are
And everything else moves along
While you fade away
And becomes the dust on the surface
That the next ones travel on

The road doesn’t care
Whether you’ve come far or just started
If you travel well and in style
Or if you crawl labouriously along
And it doesn’t know the meaning of fair and unfair

It just continues and continues
And all that’s left to you is to make the best of it
While you travel along

So, dear fellow travellers, remember to enjoy the view
Remember those next to you on the road
Remember yourself
Be sure that you collect what you want in your heart
As you go along

Because you don’t know
Where or when your stop sign comes up
And the road, your road, isn’t any longer.

And you’ve run out of time.

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- just what came out when I heard the sad news yesterday about my cousin fighting for his life in the hospital. How I’d like to see him back on his bike and rolling further down his part of the road.

(crossposted from my cobblestone blog)

Tolkien said something Similar in The Lord of the Rings-Fellowship of the Ring- Chapter one:
The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the road has gone, and I must follow if I can,
pursuing it with eager feet, until it joins some larger way
where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then I cannot say.

I need to... assimilate this for a bit... I'lll be back once I've contemplated it. Thanks Santra.

I'd be quite happy for it to be read at my funeral.

Thanks TC - and that quote complimented it well, Shagbark. Only I am very sure I do not belong in the same company of writing as Tolkien

Lovely, Santra. Thank you.